Rick Hill is the Valero Alamo Bowl’s VP of Marketing and Communications. Prior to the bowl, Rick spent 6 years working for the Spurs, one season with Missions Baseball and two fruitless months trying to sell season tickets for the S.A. Riders.

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

Taking My Talents to Jerry World

I purposely avoid spending any time in new homes, new cars and even new football stadiums so I can be content with what I have instead of jealous of what I don’t have.

Luckily none of my close friends have new homes. Thus, I’m more than happy with my 72-year-old home even if I no longer open two of the three outside doors because I fear the shifting foundation won’t allow me to close them again.

Avoiding new cars has proven more difficult and I’m ashamed to admit I caved into temptation and traded in my 12-year-old vehicle last month. The fact I bought a base model sedan (without a radio and vanity mirrors) for less than I paid for a similar model in 1998 is helping counter-balance my buyer’s remorse.

Without the need for a new home or the desire to car shop again until at least 2022, the elephant in the room (or the state) was Cowboys Stadium. I knew the shiny $1.2 billion stadium everyone was raving about was just up 35 North but I was in no rush to see what I was missing.

However, when this year’s collegiate ticketing conference was relocated from New Orleans to Arlington I decided to jump in my new car and see the glory that is Jerry World. Here’s what I noticed:

Lining Them Up: I had to fight through hundreds of people crowding the entrance to pay $15 (kids) and $27 (adults) to get in the stadium. Our tour guide said 600,000 people have toured the stadium in the last year which by my math means Jerry has grossed over $12 million on a $20 average ticket. For that kind of money I think tour goers should be getting golf tips from Tony Romo.

Same Song, Different Verse: When the tour guide said our first stop would be the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders locker room, you would have thought he announced that everyone was getting free Super Bowl tickets. I had a flashback to the summer of 1990 when I worked as an Anheuser-Busch tour guide. Whenever I would show the video of the brewmasters sampling beer 2/3 of the tour would elbow their buddies and say “finally a job you could do.” Obviously cheerleaders dressing and brewmasters drinking equals instant comedy.

That’s A Big Twinkie: After hearing so much about the center hung scoreboard, I didn’t think it would live up to the hype. It did. If you ever have the chance to see an event here and the screen is being used (note: some concerts don’t use it) go.

Amenities: We were told that each player’s locker cost $10,000 but the locker room itself wasn’t much different than an average college team’s digs. But that’s probably since the team doesn’t spend much time here. To my dismay, Miles Austin’s locker didn’t even have a picture of Kim Kardashian up yet.

The big wow was the 50 yard line underground hospitality area where the team walks through on their way to the field. Jerry turned unusable space to what I’m sure is one of the most coveted places to be on game day. Another stroke of genius is “the perch” connected to Jerry’s 50 person suite on the 50 yard line. Jerry can entertain his guests and then retreat to the 8 person perch when he wants to get serious about watching the game.

Shooting the Breeze: The stadium endzones house the standing room only sections and the glass behind them can be opened along with the roof so it’d make for an unbelievable atmosphere for a fall game.

Tall Cotton: Also on the tour is the building’s only tenants outside of the Cowboys, the AT&T Cotton Bowl. Their lobby includes diagrams of key plays in Cotton Bowl history (surprise, surprise there is a play featuring Jerry Jones when he played at Arkansas), helmets of past participants and the greatest collection of candy I have ever seen in any office. Hopefully, they didn’t notice those three packages of sour patch straws that jumped into my back pocket. Note to self: If I show up again on Monday, I need to wear red and not blue as that’s their mandated color for that day.

Size Matters: Standing on the field, you realize that this will be the perfect venue for big events. The Super Bowl buzz is already palpable and the stadium’s ability to add temporary seats will make it a player for all major events. If I had any concerns about the stadium, it would be the costs to run an event (without any large acts touring this summer the building didn’t have any events scheduled until Cowboys pre-season games) and whether they built too many suites. Our tour guide told us 92% of the 300+ suites were sold meaning 25+ suites were not. It’s a small fraction but those unsold suites lessen the value of the 275 sold ones and will need to be filled to keep future renewal rates high.

Hello Neighbor: The stadium is a walkable distance from Rangers Ballpark and Six Flags but not from any full service hotels. Thus, Jerry World may lap every stadium in the country as far as bells and whistles, I still give San Antonio and other cities with centrally located facilities major points for convenience.

With the Dallas Cowboys in town for training camp, I hope to see Jerry Jones in the hallway or at a practice so I can congratulate him for hitting a grand slam with Cowboys Stadium. Or better yet, maybe I can pull beside him when he’s driving his golf cart and we can even joke that neither of our rides came with radios.